This vs. that: Two topics go head-to-head each day

By CNN Staff

Updated 1820 GMT (0220 HKT) October 30, 2013

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: January 20 - Friday night, again – CNN found thousands of Facebook mentions of "get high" and "get drunk" over a few hours on a Friday night, a couple of months ago. We decided to take another look at the same numbers on January 17, as news broke about President Barack Obama's comments about weed being "no more dangerous" than alcohol. Alcohol is still mentioned more, but it looks like the gap between the substances is a little smaller. You can see the January 17 numbers here. The November 8 results are on the next frame.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that - November 9: Friday night, then – This is how November 8's results stacked up. There was a bigger divide between "get high" and "get drunk" in this chart, compared to what we are seeing from January 17. The age spread was less even in November, too.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: January 20 - Friday night, again – We also looked at mentions of the words "marijuana" and "alcohol." This chart looks at numbers from January 17. The mentions of the two substances seem to be more even with one another than the results we saw on November 8. The earlier chart (next frame) showed a bigger difference. Read more about marijuana and alcohol.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 9 - Friday night, then – Clearly, people do discuss drug and alcohol use on Facebook. This chart shows the number of mentions of marijuana and alcohol between 4 p.m. and midnight on Friday, November 8. Alcohol was mentioned much more, and there were some slight gender and age differences between the two. CNN's Don Lemon discussed the results.

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This vs. that: January 16 - Three newsmakers – On a typical day, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other politicians usually can't top the stars in Facebook mentions. Justin Bieber and Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez are perennial talkers. But after Chris Christie's bridge controversy, he was mentioned more often in the United States over a weeklong period than the latter two men combined -- even after Bieber cracked the headlines once again.

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This vs. that: January 12 - Golden Globes – Tina Fey got more Facebook mentions than Amy Poehler during the first half of the Golden Globe Awards, but Poehler jumped ahead after winning an award. This chart showed how they fared during the last hour of the show.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: December 19 - 'Duck Dynasty' – Oh, quackers. The bearded boys of "Duck Dynasty" got caught up in a flap when patriarch Phil Robertson was suspended for making controversial remarks about gays and blacks in an interview for the January issue of GQ. We ran the numbers and were fascinated that so many women are talking about a show featuring outdoorsy, camouflage-covered hunters. Just a week ago, 71% of the people talking about Duck Dynasty on Facebook were women. Now that the boys are getting more attention, the genders are split a little more evenly and the ages are older. But still, more women.

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This vs. that: December 16 - Spotted what? – Pudding is a staple of British holiday desserts. In the United States, people are chattering about two cheeky-sounding, suet-filled sweets: spotted dick and clootie dumpling. Both are made with beef fat, and both have attention-getting names. But would you believe the conversation on Facebook is split by gender? More women are talking about spotted dick than men, and more men are talking about clootie dumpling than women.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: December 13 - Affluenza – 'Tis the season for sneezing. Yes, plenty of things are going viral this time of year. The term "affluenza" came to prominence when attorneys claimed a Texas teen was a victim of his family's wealth and bad parenting. Lo and behold, way more people are coughing up chatter about this upper-middle-class affliction than its fever-inducing counterpart. More than 13 times as many. Will there ever be a cure? For either one? In case you're wondering, "flu" alone was mentioned more than 600,000 times, but that also includes Michael Jordan's Flu Game shoes.

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This vs. that: November 21 - Cocaine – Say it ain't so, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. We've all heard about your troubles with crack cocaine, in a "drunken stupor," no less. It's not a competition, but U.S. Rep. Trey Radel is totally getting way more Facebook mentions than you right now. Radel was charged after he bought 3.5 grams of cocaine from an undercover police officer, according to court documents. But then again, you've got a younger crowd talking about you, Mayor Ford.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that - November 20: Taking flight – The release of CNN's ATL24 project got us thinking about airports. With all the hassles of flying these days, we were expecting a lot more instances of "hate airports" than "love airports" in the Facebook realm -- but that's not what happened. And why is it that women are talking about airports so much more than men? Time to let this discussion take flight.

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This vs. that - November 19: Keeping score – This chart compares the entire text of the Gettysburg Address to the famous words at the beginning of the speech: "Four score and seven years ago." Why is it that more women seem to be sharing the whole speech and men are quoting parts of it? And why is there a tiny sliver of mentions of the full speech coming from users ages 35-44? Read more about the speech.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 15 - Go BatKid! – As young BatKid made his crime-fighting way through Gotham City, onlookers followed along via social media. The Riddler and The Penguin have since been apprehended, officials reported. It took a team of about 1,200 volunteers to turn San Francisco, California, into the spitting image of Gotham. But they were eager to grant the wishes of a 5-year-old Batman superfan named Miles, who has leukemia. In terms of Facebook mentions, BatKid is the clear winner against acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Women over the age of 45 seemed to be making many of the mentions.

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This vs. that: November 14 - Warren, Clinton – David Rothkopf, a regular contributor to CNN Opinion, wrote a column saying he doesn't buy Sen. Elizabeth Warren as a viable opponent to Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. We decided to see how Warren and Clinton fare in terms of Facebook mentions. They're pretty close, both in terms of totals and age demographics -- about 75% of the Facebook users who were doing the talking were over the age of 45 in both cases. But Clinton did get a greater percentage of mentions from men.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 13 - Sweater weather – Much of the United States is in the grips of a cold spell, and some will undoubtedly don turtlenecks for extra warmth. It's hard to stay neutral about this snug-fitting fashion, so we decided to see which way the Facebook winds were blowing. Turns out the race between mentions of "love turtlenecks" and "hate turtlenecks" was neck-and-neck. Most of the demographics were similar, too, although a slightly greater percentage of women mentioned "hate turtlenecks."

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 12 - Turner Field – Sports fans are all abuzz about Turner Field's planned move from Turner Field in downtown Atlanta to suburban Cobb County in 2017. This chart shows the jump in references to the stadium from one week to the next. The numbers grew to more than 30 times as many mentions of the beleaguered ballpark, and included a slight gender shift.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 12 - Sub/urban – The story of the move from Turner Field is also the story of urban versus suburban living. In the city of Atlanta, the phrases "inside the perimeter" and "outside the perimeter" serve as informal divisions -- much like the Beltway in Washington, for example. At least on Facebook, the two sides of I-285 are veritable equals: their total counts over the span of a week are only four mentions apart, and the demographics are so similar, it's almost eerie.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 11 - Veterans Day – It's Veterans Day, a day to thank those who have served. Today's theme is war and peace: two words that we decided to compare on Facebook. It appears that more people are mentioning peace than war, and that there are age differences in the people referencing each of these words. To those veterans out there who may be reading this, we salute you.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 11 - Symbolism – We also looked at the symbolism of the hawk and dove. More people are talking about the hawk, and with slightly different age groups in this case, than those talking about the dove.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 9 - Pot and booze – Clearly, people do discuss drug and alcohol use on Facebook. This chart shows the number of mentions of marijuana and alcohol between 4 p.m. and midnight on Friday, November 8. Alcohol was mentioned much more, and there were some slight gender and age differences between the two. WATCH: CNN's Don Lemon explains

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 8 - 'Thor' – Thor and Loki have an epic rivalry of rivalries. With "Thor: The Dark World" out on the big screen, many fans are talking about the actors that play them: Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. This chart pits them against one another. Looks like the "good guy" doesn't always win. Hiddleston has a significantly larger number of mentions, and a greater percentage of them are female.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 7 - Video versus – Blockbuster will be closing its 300 remaining U.S.-based retail stores, as was recently announced. Even with this news, the iconic video rental chain has been getting fewer mentions on Facebook than Netflix, which offers packages for streaming and DVDs by mail. Netflix and similar services have disrupted the traditional video-rental model. Although the amount of conversation about the two outfits is very different, their demographics are remarkably similar.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 7 - Rewind – This chart looks at the difference a day can make. Blockbuster got 9,000 mentions on November 5 and 43,000 mentions on November. By contrast, video-streaming service Netflix got 86,000 mentions. There was a slight increase in the percentage of women talking about Blockbuster over that day, as well.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 6 - Stars realign? – Katy Perry recently overtook Justin Bieber with a greater number of followers on Twitter, causing some to speculate that she was taking the torch of pop stardom. On Facebook, Bieber is getting about 25% more mentions than Perry. But check out both the gender and age percentages: very similar numbers of females are mentioning Bieber and Perry, and Bieber has younger age groups talking about him than Perry.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 5 - Election 2013 – With Election 2013 bringing voters to the polls in several states, CNN decided to take a look at two prominent candidates. These maps shows Facebook mentions of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (top) and Terry McAuliffe, a gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, over the span of 10 days starting at noon on October 26. Darker shades represent greater numbers of mentions per capita. Christie got 128,000 mentions (about 45,000 from New Jersey), while McAuliffe got 121,000 (about 28,700 of them came from Virginia).

SOURCE: Facebook

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 4 - Off to the polls? – Voters in some states will be heading to the polls on November 5, 2013, with two big contests taking place in Virginia and New Jersey. On Facebook, the phrase "not voting" was mentioned significantly more than the phrase "am voting" among U.S. Facebook users over the past week. There were noticeable age and gender differences in each category. The caveat is we don't know the specific context of the phrases in this case.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: November 1 - Hairy numbers – The first day of November marks the start of two hair-related challenges: Movember, for growing mustaches, and No Shave November (somewhat broader in scope and including beards and legs). Many people participate in these events for charity. When we compared them, No Shave November got slightly more mentions on Facebook. Movember had a slightly older crowd doing the mentioning.

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This vs. that: October 31 - Candy corn – Candy corn is a pretty polarizing confection. But looking at Facebook mentions of "love candy corn" and "hate candy corn" over the course of the week leading up to Halloween, there seems to be a lot more love than hate.

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This vs. that: October 31 - Busy day – Halloween and the World Series are competing for attention on October 31. Halloween got way more mentions on Facebook, and the demographics between the two events are very different. About 75% of the people talking about Halloween were women, who dominate conversations about the spooky traditions associated with it. More men than women are talking about the World Series, but they are surprisingly even.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: October 31 - World Series – The Red Sox won the World Series, and they're getting way more mentions on Facebook than the Cardinals. It seems like the gender breakdown is slightly different between the two teams, while the ages of the people mentioning them are very similar.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: October 30 - Wine shortage? – You might want to stock up on vino. The wine industry is experiencing an "undersupply of nearly 300 million cases" a year, according to a report from Morgan Stanley Research. Check out this chart to see who is talking about wine and its spirited pal, beer, on Facebook. Mostly women are talking about wine, which may not be too surprising, but plenty of women are also talking about beer. The age demographics appear very similar past age 24.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: October 30 - Reed, Brown – The recent death of Lou Reed has inspired nostalgic yearnings, and highlighted contrasts in the music industry. Check out this chart to see the interesting gender and age differences in who is talking about Reed (who does have younger fans!) and Chris Brown, who is also making the news. Brown was arrested on an assault charge that put him on a path toward a possible prison sentence, but he will be in a rehabilitation facility as his next court date approaches.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: October 29 - Meme-agerie – Sure, cats are popular on the Internet, but they have plenty of competition. The long-necked giraffe became part of a Facebook meme challenging people to solve a riddle. But Norway's Ylvis have posed a different question: "What does the fox say?" Whether or not you can solve these semi-eternal animal mysteries, check out this chart to see who is talking about each creature.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: October 28 - Getting political – Obamacare and the NSA are all over the news right now because of reported website glitches and the release of further surveillance allegations, respectively. We decided to compare the two topics against each other, and it appears that the NSA was mentioned four times more often than Obamacare on Facebook during a 24-hour period. The two topics are also showing different gender and age demographics.

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Photos:This vs. that

This vs. that: October 28 - Lou Reed – After the death of musician Lou Reed, Facebook mentions of both the artist and his works surged. Here's a look at who has been talking about two of Reed's better-known songs, "Street Hassle" and "Walk on the Wild Side." The latter song was mentioned much more often, with a gender split that appeared nearly even.

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This vs. that: October 25 - Clinton, Palin – Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are back in the spotlight and that's got people speculating about their political plans. Clinton gave three high-profile speeches in three days last week. Palin is planning a trip to politically important Iowa and throwing her support behind conservative candidates. The two political figures both got similar numbers of mentions, but the people talking about Clinton were slightly older.

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This vs. that: October 22 - Proud papas – New dads Prince William and Pauly D were in the news last week. Will and Kate celebrated the christening of their son Prince George in an intimate royal ceremony. Jersey Shore star Pauly D announced that he just found out that he has a baby daughter. Pauly D got roughly the same number of mentions as the future king of England, but the ages of the people doing the mentioning were very different.

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Story highlights

What are people talking about? Facebook mentions give a glimpse

CNN now has ability to see how often some topics are mentioned

Data is broad and shows demographics, rather than specific conversations

People talk about all kinds of things on social media: Their day-to-day lives, articles generating a lot of buzz and the things they ate for breakfast.

Some of the conversations by Facebook's 128 million daily users revolve around the news, and CNN now has the ability to take a peek into this world.

Facebook has given CNN access to demographic data that tells us how many people have mentioned a topic along with age, gender and location information. We aren't actually reading through conversations, but rather looking at numbers that show us trends.

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You might see that more women are talking about a particular topic than men, or that younger age groups are mentioning one news event versus another. While this isn't a scientific study, we hope pitting two topics against each other will give some perspective on these results.

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Gettysburg Address as Facebook status – Click through to see which snippets of the Gettysburg Address are most-mentioned on Facebook.

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Gettysburg Address as Facebook status – Note that each of these phrases or sentences may be parts of longer posts.

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Sometimes, these numbers can show us things we don't expect. For example, we recently learned that many of the Facebook users talking about Iran were young people, especially internationally.

We also found a similar trend in ages among the people talking about the government shutdown. Looking at Facebook mentions can give us insights that would be hard to get in any other way.

Check back here to see new charts about topics in the news and popular conversation, and if you have ideas you want us to look into, let us know in the comments below.